memeorandum: L.A. Mayor Garcetti expected to announce plan for $13.25 minimum wage (Catherine Saillant/Los Angeles Times)

4:45 PM ET, August 28, 2014

Top Items:

Chuck Todd Pushes RNC Chair: ‘Too Many Crazy White Guys’? — On MSNBC's “The Daily Rundown,” host Chuck Todd asked Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, on Thursday about report commissioned by two conservative groups that found that the Republican party …

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Post, Hot Air, The Daily Banter, Daily Kos, NewsBusters and American Prospect

Detroit Free Press:

Schauer edges ahead of Snyder, 45% to 43%, in new governor race poll — LANSING — Democratic challenger Mark Schauer has edged ahead of Gov. Rick Snyder by two percentage points, according to a new poll of likely voters in the Nov. 4 election. — The results from EPIC-MRA of Lansing come …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:

Reince Priebus fights back on women poll memo — Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday pushed back against an internal memo detailing GOP problems with women, suggesting both parties are struggling with female voters. — “I don't think either party can do a victory lap here …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Ring of Fire, Pharyngula and Shakesville

Rand Paul / Wall Street Journal:

How U.S. Interventionists Abetted the Rise of ISIS — Our Middle Eastern policy is unhinged, flailing about to see who to act against next, with little regard to consequences.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Business Insider, Washington Post, Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Obama's immigration decision could roil 2014 election — Both political parties are in a state of high anxiety over the possibility that President Obama will allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the country, fearing that White House action on the issue could change the course of November's midterm elections.

Discussion: Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run, National Review, Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Shakesville, The Hill and RedState

Fox News:
Dems' last ditch hope: Force a shutdown to save the Senate

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh and Washington Post

Kay Steiger / Talking Points Memo:

Does Gillibrand Have A ‘Responsibility’ To Name Her Harassers? — A debate broke out on Twitter among three male journalists — New York Times' Nick Confessore, Politico's Alex Burns, and MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin — on Thursday afternoon: Does Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) …

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:

Andrea Mitchell Recalls Senators 'You'd Not Get In An Elevator With' — MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell is less than surprised by the revelations of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) about being subjected to sexual harassment by her congressional colleagues, sharing her own experiences reporting on “the oldest white male club in the world.”

Discussion: Jezebel and Mediaite

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:
Gillibrand To Male Colleague Who Called Her ‘Porky’: ‘Thanks A—hole’

Discussion: Jezebel, Washington Post, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, Mediaite and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

TMZ.com:

Joan Rivers — Stops Breathing During Surgery ... (Update: Critical Condition) — STOPS BREATHING DURING SURGERY — (Update: Critical Condition) — EXCLUSIVE — 8:49 AM PT — The NYPD tells us ... Joan is currently in critical condition. — We're told ... at one point, Joan's heart stopped beating.

Discussion: CNN, The Daily Caller, E! Online, The Huffington Post, kdvr.com, Mashable, The Superficial, Gawker, KXAN-TV and BuzzFeed

CNN:

Official: Russian forces back rebels with tanks in eastern Ukraine — Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) — Pro-Moscow rebel forces in eastern Ukraine, backed by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers, battled government forces on two fronts Thursday, a Ukrainian military official said.

Discussion: Business Insider, Firedoglake, Weekly Standard and The PJ Tatler

Max Fisher / Vox:
Let's be clear about this: Russia is invading Ukraine right now

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite, The Verge, The Dish, New Atlanticist, Guardian and New York Times

Isabel Gorst / Los Angeles Times:
Russians invading, says Ukraine leader; tanks reported crossing border

Discussion: BBC, AMERICAN DIGEST and National Review

The Huffington Post:

NRA: ‘Children Can Have Fun At The Shooting Range’ — WASHINGTON — Less than two days after a 9-year-old girl in Arizona accidentally shot and killed a gun range instructor who was showing her how to fire an Uzi, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday touted new ways for children to “have fun” at shooting ranges.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story, Mashable, ABC News, Hullabaloo, PoliticusUSA, Liberaland and Hot Air

New York Times:
A 9-Year-Old at a Shooting Range, a Spraying Uzi and Outrage

Discussion: ThinkProgress, AMERICAblog News, Mother Jones, The Mahablog and Outside the Beltway

Gail Sullivan / Washington Post:
Firing-range instructor hands 9-year-old an Uzi. Now he's dead.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, New York Times, The Dish, NBC News, Guardian, The Daily Banter and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Investor's Business Daily:

Holder Cut Left-Wing Groups In On $17 Bil BofA Deal — Extortion: Radical Democrat activist groups stand to collect millions from Attorney General Eric Holder's record $17 billion deal to settle alleged mortgage abuse charges against Bank of America. — Buried in the fine print of the deal …

Discussion: National Review, Power Line, protein wisdom and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Tom Pelissero / USA Today:

NFL toughens its stance on domestic violence — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admits he was wrong on the Ray Rice decision, and Goodell took an important step Thursday towards showing the league is serious about cracking down on domestic violence as well as sexual assault.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and CBS Chicago

Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

False Hope: Why Libertarians Won't Help Republicans Win the Youth Vote — The Republican Party has a major problem with young voters. According to national exit polls, the GOP has lost the under-30 vote by a wide margin in every election since 2004. In 2012, Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Hullabaloo and Washington Monthly

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Bill O'Reilly and White Privilege — Is white privilege real? Not according to Fox News's Bill O'Reilly. — This week O'Reilly debated the issue of white privilege with a fellow host and then returned to the topic the next day with this doozy of a statement:

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Fox News, Mediaite, Gawker and Booman Tribune

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:

Why Hagan wins North Carolina — Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) is the target of what could be the most aggressive, dishonest, vindictive and lavishly financed negative campaign against any statewide candidate I've ever seen, yet according to the summary of polling from Real Clear Politics …

Karen Shuey / LancasterOnline:

F&M College Poll: Corbett failing to gain ground in race with Wolf — Doris Berko and Cindy Butzer might live in the same town, but they find themselves on opposite sides of the political landscape. — Both women, who reside in Leola, were participants in the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll released Thursday morning.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Tricia L. Nadolny / Philly.com:

VA ‘Oscar the Grouch’ training angers vets — The beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs depicted dissatisfied veterans as Oscar the Grouch in a recent internal training guide, and some vets and VA staffers said Tuesday that they feel trashed. — The cranky Sesame Street character …

Discussion: Fox News Insider

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic Online:

The Extreme Partisanship of John Roberts's Supreme Court — Like Barack Obama, the chief justice came into office promising an age of apolitical comity. And like the president, he has seen his dream die. — “Politics are closely divided,” John Roberts told scholar Jeffrey Rosen after his first term as chief justice.

Discussion: RedState

Milo Yiannopoulos / BREITBART.COM:

MUSLIM GANG RAPISTS ARE SPRINGING UP EVERYWHERE. WHY CAN'T WE BE HONEST ABOUT IT? — The notorious Sydney gang rapes in 2000 were committed by Lebanese Australians. Muslim men raped women and girls as young as 14. Australia, being a sensible sort of place, identified that the rapists …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

THE / Los Angeles Times:

Editorial Don't let Arizona and Kansas get away with potentially discriminatory voter registration rules — Arizona, which has become infamous for its hostility toward immigrants who are in the country illegally, lost an important case in the U.S. Supreme Court last year when the justices ruled …

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:

Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist? — Let's start with what we don't know: the precise circumstances under which a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot dead an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. — But here's what evidence does strongly suggest: Young black men in America suffer …

Discussion: Mediaite

John Feehery / Wall Street Journal:

Portman Fills the Gap in the GOP Presidential Field — Jeb Bush is probably not running. Neither is Mitt Romney. Chris Christie is trying to hard to recover from Bridge-gate but that doesn't seem likely. — That means there is a huge gap in the Republican field: The responsible one.

Discussion: OnPolitics